I often felt as though school were a repeating pattern, each and every day. I would wake up to that dreaded sound of the alarm at the same exact time five days a week, look out the window at the dark world outside and wish for nothing but to crawl back into the warmth of my bed. Every day was the same. Same assignments, just with different wording. Same tests but with different numbers and words inputted into the questions. It felt as if we were all robots, going through the motions, as if we had no control over what we did. I feel as though it is the strict order and pre-programmed practice that is turning school into something that we dread as students. There is no longer any excitement or sense of wonder as to what we will learn that day at school. By the time we reach our senior year of high school, the anticipation and enthusiasm that we once had in our elementary days have disappeared. The older we grow, it seems as though the less passionate our teachers feel towards helping us learn, and our education has become not about discovery, but memorization. The magic of learning has dissipated. We need to be engaged, drawn in and hooked to what we are learning.
The Game of School absolutely exists. It seems as though students these days are making it their goal to exert as little energy as possible into their education. We have become minimalists who find shortcuts, who cheat and rely on the art of memorization to perform well. There was another section of this excerpt that truly caught my attention. It is the fact that most people in a school are thinking about the steps ahead and not what they are doing right that second. When you take notes in class you think about the exam that is going to be based on them. You desperately try to remember the hints that your teacher told you in class of what the test would be on. When a teacher assigns homework, you think about how it will impact your grade if you do not complete it. We as students have grown to focus on outcomes and results, not what is happening at that very moment. This is a mistake because it disguises moments of discovery. How can you discover, learn and treasure something when all you can think about is what comes next? Like a check list, school feels like an obligation and less of a desire. Figuring out how to change the perspective of students back to the first grader, when everything was fresh and new to the mind. We must be eager to learn because that it what our future depends on. That hunger to gain new knowledge and improve our skills is what will drive us through life. We need to take our lives by the horns, by stepping up, living in the moment and performing to the best of our ability.
The Game of School absolutely exists. It seems as though students these days are making it their goal to exert as little energy as possible into their education. We have become minimalists who find shortcuts, who cheat and rely on the art of memorization to perform well. There was another section of this excerpt that truly caught my attention. It is the fact that most people in a school are thinking about the steps ahead and not what they are doing right that second. When you take notes in class you think about the exam that is going to be based on them. You desperately try to remember the hints that your teacher told you in class of what the test would be on. When a teacher assigns homework, you think about how it will impact your grade if you do not complete it. We as students have grown to focus on outcomes and results, not what is happening at that very moment. This is a mistake because it disguises moments of discovery. How can you discover, learn and treasure something when all you can think about is what comes next? Like a check list, school feels like an obligation and less of a desire. Figuring out how to change the perspective of students back to the first grader, when everything was fresh and new to the mind. We must be eager to learn because that it what our future depends on. That hunger to gain new knowledge and improve our skills is what will drive us through life. We need to take our lives by the horns, by stepping up, living in the moment and performing to the best of our ability.